It’s Time For A Real Birkin: The Muse Behind the Famous Bag

Throw a rock in Manhattan and there’s a good chance you’ll hit someone carrying a Birkin bag, the coveted accessory created by Hermès.

Three months ago, the original Hermès Birkin was auctioned at Sotheby’s in Paris and sold for a record-breaking $10.1 million, making it the most valuable handbag ever sold.

There is a real person who inspired the crown jewel of accessories.

Now, New York-based journalist Marisa Meltzer, who contributes to top publications and has authored several best-sellers, is introducing her to some and reminding others who she was with the biography “It Girl, The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin.”

Birkin, who passed away in 2023, was born in England but spent her adult life in France, where she cultivated the quintessential French-girl style that still exists today. According to Meltzer, Jane Birkin is the reason why “high-waisted denim with flared hems, fluttery white peasant blouses, Repetto ballet flats, crocheted dresses, and woven hand baskets used as handbags” are still part of the fashion Zeitgeist.

Straus Media spoke with Meltzer about how being “It” doesn’t necessarily equate to having it easy, the frustrations of being seen as arm candy, and the irony of the original sketch for the bag. You’ll never look at a Birkin the same way again.

Why wasn’t it enough for you to have people think that Jane Birkin was just the inspiration for a handbag?

I don’t think it was enough for her. I’m always interested in people who are written off as muses or inspiration types. And she was someone that I had a hunch about from the way she spoke in interviews, and the kind of films that she chose, and some of her documentaries. She had a very rich life and a lot to bring to the world.

People think someone declared an “It Girl” means her life must be one boulevard of unbroken green lights. But Jane Birkin struggled.

[Jane] dealt with suicidal ideation, sickness, addiction in her family, and she was playing on this field that was very rarefied.

On the surface, she had a lot going for her. She was beautiful, privileged, and came from a family that was famous because her mother was a well-known actress—Noel Coward’s muse. But she didn’t feel as beautiful as her mother. [Jane] was gamine and tomboyish, and her mother was Old Hollywood-style beautiful. Growing up, she just didn’t fit in. She hated boarding school. She didn’t know what she wanted to do with her life. And, over and over, she chose these mercurial relationships, often with much older men, and with consequences.

Also, she was going through what a lot of women do, wanting to be a mother, but not wanting to give up her life, including her nightlife.

You devote a chapter to the Birkin bag, from which she never benefited monetarily. Was she not a good businesswoman, or was having the bag bear her name enough?

There’s a long history of muses in fashion. I think she considered it more of a feather in her cap. She had the bag made for her, and then [Hermès] decided to manufacture it and named it after her. She never went into the Birkin bag as a money-making venture.

Of course, that’s an outdated notion for us now, when everyone is doing collaborations and monetizing their names.

Eventually, [Jane] was given a certain amount of money a year from Hermès to donate to her favorite causes, which is what she cared about more than capitalizing off of her own name.

The most ironic thing is that she designed the Birkin on an Air France air-sickness bag. Seems quite the leap from that to the most coveted bag in the world.

It really is. She was actually very good at sketching and art. I wish there were some record of that original sketch, for sure.

You write in the book that English-speaking countries didn’t know about Jane Birkin until she died, even though she had so many movies, albums, was in fashion magazines, and had a very well-documented life.

She was known, but as a cult figure.

In France, she was a beloved mainstream star. Her level of fame in America and even in the UK was much smaller.

There are so many people who have no idea that there was someone named Birkin that the bag was named after.

I think it’s generational in that there are a lot of people who have never heard her music or seen her movies. Part of that is because she was in very few English-language movies.

[Jane] was on the cover of American Vogue, but that was in the ‘70s. She’s recognizable in that her photos are often seen on mood boards or Pinterest.

While reading, I couldn’t help but draw a parallel with “Sex and the City.” Like Carrie, Jane had a career, an eclectic fashion sense, and quite a social life. She, too, aligned herself with Mr. Big types—older and above her financially, socially, and professionally. Do you see Jane Birkin as the Carrie Bradshaw of her day?

A little bit, although Carrie Bradshaw’s personality was about being a writer, and Jane Birkin’s was about being a performer, but there is definitely that same big-city, girl about town, whose relationships are gossiped about quality, and wonderful clothes.

Do you think that Jane Birkin’s story is one of female empowerment or is it a cautionary tale?

I think it’s just the story of a woman’s life that was just as complicated as any other. There are parts that I see as empowering and really ahead of her time, the way that she dressed, the documentary she made, and then there are other things that I find a bit regressive: the relationships she had, and allowing herself to be seen as second fiddle.

It Girl The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin, by Marisa Meltzer, is available Oct. 7.

Lorraine Duffy Merkl is the author of the novel THE LAST SINGLE WOMAN IN NEW YORK CITY.